South Australia has been experiencing a heatwave, with temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius in the evenings. As a result of the extreme temperatures, those living in the area have seen power outages. Read more: Elon's empire: the sprawling, intertwining web of Elon Musk's vested interests
The situation has become so bad that Australia's prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has declared an energy emergency across the country and held crisis talks.
Step up, Elon Musk.
The SpaceX boss has claimed his battery company, Tesla, will be able to solve the region's woes within 100 days. Musk's comments come after the head of Tesla's battery division told those in Australia it would be able to provide a factory of 100-300 megawatt hours of batteries to the country.
Lyndon Rive told Australia Financial Review that it would be possible to install the needed batteries within a few months.
"We could install everything and get it up and running within 100 days," Rive told the publication.
After being challenged on Twitter by Mike Cannon-Brookes, the co-founder of software company Atlassian, Musk agreed his company could deliver the batteries, if a contract was signed.
"Tesla will get the system installed and working 100 days from contract signature or it is free. That serious enough for you?" Musk responded to Cannon-Brookes.
The bet from Tesla is even being taken seriously by officials in the area of Australia. Sarah Hanson-Young, a senator for South Australia and a member of the Green party in the country, replied to Musk with a simple message: "Let's talk!".
Since Musk's proposal, Australia's prime minister has also been in touch with him. Turnbull, tweeted that he had an "in depth" discussion with Musk covering energy story and "it's role in delivering affordable & reliable electricity".
Musk echoed the sentiments by replying that is was "very exciting" to speak with the prime minister and "discuss the future of electricity".
"That's why I asked our clean energy finance agencies to focus on storage - vital now w generation more distributed & variable," Turnbull followed-up by saying.
It's unclear whether any deal will be struck but for it to happen there would have to be agreements between political leaders, financiers, and representatives from Tesla. If an agreement is struck it wouldn't be the first time Tesla has stepped in to help provide a country with its energy supplies.
In November 2016, it was revealed the island of Ta’u in American Samoa, 4,000 miles from the US West coast, has had a microgrid installed by Tesla and Musk's other venture, SolarCity.
The grid combines both solar panels and battery units from Musk. It's comprised of 1.4 megawatts of solar generation capacity and has 60 Tesla Powerpacks. It took the firm one year to place on the island and provides energy for the island's 600 residents.
The battery system allows residents on the remote island to use stored solar energy at night.
It is said, as well as providing energy, the project will allow the island to significantly save on energy costs and offset the use of more than 109,500 gallons of diesel per year.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
